Wednesday, March 14, 2018

(Miami Film Festival) Cuban Food Stories

Director: Asori Soto

Producer: Asori Soto

Screenwriter: Asori Soto

Executive Producer: Joey Carey, Malena Svarch

Music: Kyle Newmaster

Cinematographer: Gilliam de la Torre

Editor: Krystan Sprague

Diverse cuisine is rarely counted among the cultural phenomena for which Cuba is celebrated; popular notions of Cuba as a placed defined by deprivation doesn’t help. A richly comprehensive remedy for this misperception, Cuban Food Stories visits every province in the country to sample a culinary legacy grounded in so much more than rice and beans.

Paragons of Cuba’s characteristic adaptability and creativity, the film’s subjects—which include an artist turned restauranteur and nuclear physicist turned fisherman—create mouth-watering meals with ingredients such as coconut milk, cacao, lobster and river shrimp. Until now devoid of franchises and the fraught agricultural practices that often come with a place at the global economic table, Cuba is undergoing a period of sweeping change, making the preservation of its culinary heritage a priority—and making Cuban Food Stories a must-see.

This film is also featured in the 2018 Festival’s Knight Documentary Achievement Award Film Category.

CUBAN FOOD STORIES will be presented by Miami-based author, Ana Sofía Peláez, author of The Cuban Tale: A Celebration of Food, Flavors, and History (St. Martin’s Press).